The present invention relates to a folding type camera device and a folding type portable telephone provided with a camera function.
In a prior art folding type portable telephone provided with a camera function, a camera unit is built in either one of a first casing located on the display side and a second casing located on the operation panel side of the folding type portable telephone since the camera unit in which a lens section and a photosensor section are integrally formed is easy to handle.
As shown in FIGS. 8A through 8E, there is a folding type portable telephone in which a main body side casing A and an LCD side casing B are integrally constructed by being pivotably connected with each other via a pivot section C, and a camera unit D is built in only the second casing A located on the operation panel side as a prior art folding type camera unit (e.g., JP 2002-11834 A).
Moreover, as shown in FIG. 9, there is a folding type portable telephone in which a display section 10A and an operation section 10B are pivotably connected with each other via a hinge unit 21, and a camera unit 25 is built in only the display section 10A as a prior art folding type camera unit (e.g., JP 2002-185589 A).
However, the folding type portable telephone shown in FIGS. 8A through 8E and FIG. 9, in which the thickness of the casing equipped with the camera unit D is determined by a focal distance (about 4 mm) between the lens and the photosensor section, has therefore a problem that it cannot cope with a demand for further reducing the thickness of the folding type portable telephone. Moreover, the folding type portable telephone, which has an integrally formed camera unit mechanism, also has a problem that the lens cannot be replaced according to normal photographing, telephotographing, close-up photographing and so on.